Terminology of Drama
1. Soliloquy -character speaks aloud, but not directly to the audience
2. Aside -character speaks directly to audience without being overheard by other characters
3. Dramatic Irony -occurs when a character's words or actions carry a larger meaning he/she
does not realize, but the audience does
4.Tragedy -a drama that gives the audience an experience of catharsis -a cleansing or purifying
of emotion
5.Tragic flaw -a serious fault of the protagonist which leads to hi;, /her downfall
Dramatic structure of a tragedy:
6. Exposition- gives background information on the characters, their problems, and
their conflicts.
7. Rising Action- series of incidents in a literary plot that build toward the point of
greatest interest.
8. Climax- a decisive moment that is of maximum intensity or is a major turning point in a plot.
9. Falling Action- the part of a literary plot that occurs after the climax has been
reached and the conflict has been resolved.
10. Catastrophe (Resolution) - the point at which the circumstances overcome the
central motive, introducing the close or conclusion; dénouement.
11. Prologue- a.an introductory scene in which a narrator summarizes the main action of the work
12. Verse- written in meter; poetry, especially as involving metrical form
13. Meter- arrangement of words in regularly measured, patterned, or rhythmic lines or verses
14. Measure- a short rhythmical movement or arrangement, as in poetry or music
15. Rhyme- similarity in sound of some part, especially the end, of words or lines of verse
16. End-rhyme- rhyme that occurs at the end of corresponding lines of poetry
17. Iambic Pentameter- a common meter in poetry consisting of an unrhymed line with five feet or accents,
each foot containing an unaccented syllable and an accented syllable
18. Blank Verse - unrhymed verse, especially the unrhymed iambic pentameter
19. Couplet- a pair of successive (back-to-back) lines of verse, especially a pair that rhyme and are of the same
length
20. Capping Couplet- a couplet that signifies the end of a scene or act, or the exiting of a character
21. Quatrain- a stanza or poem of four lines, usually with alternate rhymes